Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Unleashed The August 2026 Spam Update, Gemini 3.7 Powers AI Mode, Google and Microsoft Ads News & More
Google has released its third spam update of the 2026 year, the August 2026 spam update this week and finished rolling out Friday morning at 4:50am. Google Search’s AI Mode is now being powered sometimes by…
Google changes how it parses double-escaped JSON-LD entities
Google has changed how it extracts JSON-LD data, bringing it more in line with JSON and other web standards. As Google Search Central announced on LinkedIn, Google will only do a single pass of HTML unescaping. What developers should know If developers are using JSON-LD for structured data, it’s time to update your code. Instead […]
The post Google changes how it parses double-escaped JSON-LD entities appeared first on Search Engine Watch.
Google Preferred Source Button Improved For Publishers
Google has updated the Preferred Sources button that publishers have on their websites to make it so that the user is taken right back to the page they were originally on. There is new embed code that handles this process to make it easier for users to…
Microsoft Advertising Max CPC Won’t Be Available For New Campaigns On Oct 1
Microsoft Advertising sent out emails yesterday announcing changes coming to Max CPC bidding. Microsoft wrote, “Max CPC will no longer be available when creating new non-portfolio campaigns” after October 1, 2026.
Google Ads & AI Max New Experimentation & Planning Features
Google announced it is rolling out new experimentation and planning capabilities in Google Ads and AI Max. There are new A/B test capabilities, brand and location parameters options and new Performance Planner predictions.
Google Local Service Ads Pre-Badge Ads & Expansion Of Verticals
Google has made some big updates to Local Service Ads. Even though LSAs are transitioning to Google Ads, Google is clearly still investing in the LSA product. Google added something called pre-badge ads, massively expanded the verticals and the verifi…
JSON-LD Extraction For Googlebot Now Does One Pass Of HTML Unescaping
Google’s crawler now strictly enforces standard JSON formatting when reading your site’s structured data, schema markup, instead of auto-correcting double-escaped HTML text. “To bring our parser up to JSON and other standards, we changed our JSON-LD ex…
Google Discover Feed Can Be Tailored By Words
Google is rolling out the ability to tailor your Google Discover feed by using your words, in a conversational chat-like experience. You are taken to a screen that lets you enter your desired topics, then you can go back and forth with AI to really zo…
Google Tag & Google Tag Manager Updated
Google updated the Google Tag and Google Tag Manager. Google said, “these changes are designed to streamline your measurement setup, improve performance and management, and provide a more unified experience across Google’s tagging products.”
Google confirms August 2026 spam update is complete
Google August 2026 spam update is completed and rolling out. The update was started on August 18 and finished three days later, on August 21. Google wrote on x “The rollout was complete as of August 21, 2026.” When Google first launched the update, they wrote on x, “Released the August 2026 spam update, which […]
The post Google confirms August 2026 spam update is complete appeared first on Search Engine Watch.
Google August 2026 Spam Update Has Finished Rolling Out
The Google August 2026 spam update is now done rolling out. It started on Tuesday, August 18, 2026 at around 12:30 pm ET and completed on August 21, 2026 at around 4:50 am. Despite some people feeling the update started soon, Google’s John Mueller sai…
Google Tests New Colour Variation for Featured Snippets
Google is testing to show colours for text in featured snippets. We searched for SEO, and the text appeared in a featured snippet with different colours. I assume this is new previously, Google was testing more variations with featured snippets, like background colours showing in a box and many more, but this test seems new […]
The post Google Tests New Colour Variation for Featured Snippets appeared first on Search Engine Watch.
Google adds new personalization features across Search, Discover, and News
Google announced new personalization features across Search, Discover, and Google News. The goal is to give users more control over their preferred sources and topics. 1. Preferred Sources button Google introduced a new Preferred Sources button that publishers can embed directly on their websites. When a user clicks the button, that website gets added to […]
The post Google adds new personalization features across Search, Discover, and News appeared first on Search Engine Watch.
Google tests highlighted sponsored results on mobile
Google is testing a highlighted background for its sponsored results and the section beneath them on mobile. I spotted this while searching on Google the results appeared under the “Sponsored Results” heading, and once that section ended, the entire block was visually highlighted, standing apart from the rest of the page. Here is a screenshot […]
The post Google tests highlighted sponsored results on mobile appeared first on Search Engine Watch.
Why Google Announces Some Search Updates But Not All
As you know, Google does smaller core updates and algorithm search updates all the time without announcing them. So why does Google announce some of those updates and not the others. Well, as Google told us before, Google announces the larger, more im…
Google Ads Can Find Sitelinks For You
Google Ads can now help you find sitelinks for your ad extensions. A new feature within the Google Ads advertiser console will now suggest new sitelinks to add to your ads.
Similarweb can now track ads inside ChatGPT and Google AI Mode
Similarweb says it can now track ads appearing across ChatGPT and Google AI search experiences. Its new AI Ads product provides competitive intelligence on sponsored placements, covering competitor brands, ad creatives, messaging, landing pages, and share of voice across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Google AI Overviews. How does it collect the data? According to […]
The post Similarweb can now track ads inside ChatGPT and Google AI Mode appeared first on Search Engine Watch.
Google Ads Enhanced Matching In Customer Match
Google Ads seems to be rolling out a new customer match option named “enhanced matching.” Google writes this allows you to “Expand your audience reach with your consented user lists.” Google will then “match your consented users with publishers’ conse…
Google Ads adds bidding option for loyalty program members
Google Ads has added dedicated toggles for loyalty program members within its customer retention settings, separate from lapsed customer bidding. This was spotted by Arpan Banerjee on LinkedIn, who shared a screenshot. He wrote: “Google Ads’ customer retention settings now include dedicated toggles for loyalty program members, separate from lapsed customer bidding.” Here is the […]
The post Google Ads adds bidding option for loyalty program members appeared first on Search Engine Watch.
Microsoft Advertising Rolling Out AI Max Globally
Microsoft Advertising is rolling out AI Max globally and to all advertisers. If you log in to your Microsoft Advertising account, you should be able to toggle on the AI Max setting for your search campaigns.